The leader of Partido Popular and candidate for prime minister, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, lied in Monday’s election debate, acting Prime Minister and socialist leader Pedro Sánchez and his potential future government ally, the leader of the progressive Sumar platform, Yolanda Díaz, said on Tuesday.
Speaking from Vilnius, on the margins of the NATO summit, Sánchez told the Spanish press that he was satisfied with Monday night’s debate with Feijóo, who said a “mountain of lies” in the run-up to the general elections on 23 July.
Instead of the alleged “lies” of the right camp, the leader of the Socialist Party (PSOE/S&D) stressed that what Spanish citizens deserve is to listen to serious proposals.
As fact-checked by multiple Spanish media, Feijóo told lies and half-truths about key policy issues such as sovereign debt, economic growth, employment, and housing.
“Behind this mountain of lies there is nothing; there is an absence of political project”, Sánchez added. In his view, Feijóo’s tactics with the far-right party Vox (ECR) are “worrying”.
Although the possibility of a PP-VOX pact is real, said Feijóo in an unclear and ambivalent narrative that he wants to achieve a sufficient majority at the polls to avoid having to govern with the extreme-right party, currently the third political force in parliament.
“It has become abundantly clear that PSOE is the one that has a project for the country of the present and the future”, said Sánchez after the debate, noting that “many things have been clarified”
PP happy, warns not to be overconfident
In the PP, the feeling was positive. Feijóo predicted that Sánchez is going to lose the 23 July elections by a wide margin, and said that he did not expect the debate to go “so well”. However, he asked his supporters not to be overconfident about the result.
On the other hand, he expressed his optimism about the effect that Monday’s debate could have had on VOX voters to give their support to the PP on 23 July.
“I knew it (the debate) was going to go well, but not that well”, the PP leader stated, EFE reported.
Despite his optimism, Feijóo stressed that he does not believe Sánchez is defeated, and therefore asked his supporters to be prudent, despite the fact that almost all the polls favour the PP.
Right-wing press already ‘toasts’ PP
Much of the Spanish press and media showed their disappointment on Tuesday with the harsh and aggressive tone of the debate and the constant verbal attacks between the two political leaders.
El País also lamented that neither candidate really discussed the proposals their parties have to solve the problems of the citizens.
Right-wing newspapers gave the PP leader the victory in the debate. Among them, El Mundo, ABC and La Razón, which on Tuesday praised Núñez Feijóo.
Meanwhile, Yolanda Díaz, acting Labour Minister and Sumar candidate, accused the PP leader on Tuesday of using “lies” at a “blushing speed” in the debate and reminded that “the (election) campaign is not over yet”.
In Díaz’s opinion, the debate was a “duel” of insults, a model of debate more typical of the 1990s, looking to the “past” with “the bipartisanship of two men”.
“It was a […] spectacle. A debate that looks back to the 1990s and not to the country of the future, and we women were absent”, said Díaz, recalling that Spain “is diverse, feminist and wants to advance in rights”.
Despite her critical view, Sumar’s leader was optimistic about the left’s chances.
Referring to Monday’s debate, Díaz said that” nothing was over […] there are twelve days of campaigning left in which we have to get involved”, she said.
“The people’s lives are at stake, and what that debate should have been about was presenting a model for the country. The elections are about you, about your life, and that is what people were hoping to hear”, Díaz stressed.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)
Read more with EURACTIV
Sweden’s NATO progress criticised by peace organisations, left-wing parties
Source: euractiv.com
